The Test: An AxtonxGaige One-Shot
by The Professional Holiday Man
Summary: Just a standard one shot for a soldier and a mechanical genius.
1. Axton x Gaige

A brown-haired man sat a table, looking at the misty drink in his hand, swirling it as he watched the thin ice clink as it bounced from side to side. His teammates were all at his table, with Maya on one side and Gaige on the other, the last two remaining men resided on the other side of the worn down booth. They were all celebrating, their recent victory: beating the Destroyer of Worlds- which turns out is a giant worm.

The small drunken man high-fived the girl on his receiving end: Gaige. Probably the youngest vault hunter- only being 18- that has ever existed, as far as they know, at least.

"...And then el puto decided to shoot lasers at us!" The drunken midget retold with a big, toothy, dumb smile and a uproarious laugher that filled the small bar, "Like, what do you think that would do? Kill us!?"

He slammed his hand on the beaten table, still laughing as he did so, everyone else joining in. Well, everyone but Axton. He just feels so empty, like everything is done, they got the most powerful weapons- all pearlecent- and they are the most powerful group in the world at the moment! They even beat the Destroyer of Worlds!

 _Ahh, well,_ He thought, _Might as well enjoy the night._

He threw his head back as he downed his drink, finishing it in 2 gulps, his whole team cheering him on. They've obviously had way too much.

After drink was emptied, he slammed the drink onto the table, shaking the table and causing even more rowdy cheers from the table, causing all the patrons to look their direction, glaring at the frat-like heroes.

Oh, boy.

* * *

Axton was wasted. Like, extremely wasted. He stopped seeing in double a long time ago and replaced it with seeing triple, a side effect not even he knew about.

Pretty much everyone had left, Sal left because he wanted to drink somewhere with more people, the psycho left because, well, just _because,_ and the siren left because she didn't want to have a hangover in the morning.

So it was only Axton and Gaige.

None of them spoke: one because they were too drunk, and other one because they didn't know what to say.

"Hey-hic-, Doll." Axton turned groggily towards the girl next to him, "Imma go home, I'm pretty sure I might die if I drink anymore." He slammed his head on the table, going to sleep.

Gaige winced as she could already see the impending headache he was bout to have. She gazed at Axton's sleeping face, somehow, it had a goofy smile on it. He looked completely devoid of tension; just completely indifferent to Pandora right now.

"Seriously?" Gaige looked around the room for a certain hourglass-shaped woman, and upon see her dancing behind the bar, she waved for her to come over.

The bartender, upon seeing her one of her favorite vault hunters, gave a sweet smile before opening the side of the bar to start walking towards her.

"What's happening, sugar." She said with a smooth voice, that they were all pretty much used to, as she strolled up, swaying her hips as she did so.

As she came close enough to peer over the booth wall, she noticed that the fearless woman-killer was out cold. As she giggled, she traced a finger on Axton's cheek, an act that made many girls that were watching's eye twitch. Even made some walking up to him eagerly, stop dead in their tracks, and turn around.

"Yup; out cold." Her eyes were still fixated on the male, a genuine smile on her face, "What about it."

"Well, can't you take him home?" She questioned as she took a swig of her weak drink, still wincing as the burning liquid ran down her throat.

"Oh, Sugar, I would love to do that, and I mean, really love to do it." She said as she chuckled sultry, "But I can't: I still have customers to tend to." She threw her thumb over to the new drinkers at the bar, most of them being the ones that were just rejected their chance of being with the famous soldier.

"But you can." She gave her a knowing grin.

Gaige groaned as a quest popped up on her H.U.D.

"The fact you know I can't resist anymore irritates the crap out of me." She deadpanned as she sent a glare at the voluptuous woman.

"Don't worry, Darling. You're 18 right? I can pay you back." She winked as she suggested so many things Gaige would disagree with.

"Nah, I don't want the thousandth in line." She simply stated as she finished the remaining liquid, placing down some money as she stood up next to Axton and slinged his arm over her shoulder, grabbing him by the stomach and marched out, kickining the front doors open.

Nighttime in a place like this was awful, but still had a rugged charm. The cold wind slaps you in the face harder than a weak pearlescent would, the smell was a prudent one that you would be forced to get used to as days went by: it was a mix of Rakkale, burnt carboard, and smoke. At least the sky was still beautiful. Silver lining.

She hopped down the stairs leading to the bar, one at a time, an action that stirred Axton awake.

"Hmm? Gaige? Why do I feel like-hic- crap. Did you drug me?" He laughed groggily at his own joke.

"Trust me. If I wanted to poison you, you'd know."

"Good to know, but where are we going? Hic." He raised a hand up to his mouth as he muffled a burp.

"Your apartment." She said casually as she eyed the dirty cracked street filled with newspaper clippings.

"I knew it. One day, I'd get lucky enough to convince you to come back to my room." The soldier lazily cocked his head at her with his boyish smirk that has since become his trademarked look. One that would instantly calm down someone with fried nerves. Yeah, it was that strong.

Gaige softly hit the side of his stomach with her right arm, "You idiot; if you weren't feeling like crap, I would've killed the crap out of you." She could feel a rolling burn began to rush up to his face. A feeling she was getting used to lately.

"Aww, you care about me?" His small drunken laugher between every word was breaking Gaige's mental wall. "Me too, Gaige." Gaige's eyes began to lit up, a small smile forming on her face. Her heart began to beat fast and loud, she was silently praying that he wouldn't be able to hear it. She would probably die if he found out how happy that made her.

"Actually, no: I feel more than just "Care"." Axton stated with a slur in his voice.

Gaige's face began to feel on fire, her heart felt like a jackhammer by how fast it was going. She sightly bit the insides of her mouth, wondering if he was going to say what she was thinking.

"I, iin fact, _love_ myself!" He laughed hysterically, as if he had said the best joke ever. But Gaige wasn't really feeling like laughing. Her smile was replaced with a thin line that showed indifference to her whole situation again, her eyes no longer had that shine to them, and her heart was returning to its normal pace.

"Assh*le." She whispered under her breath as she took a sharp turn to the right and stopped promptly at the door labeled, _128,_ and underneath displayed a name tag in a rustic gold color, one that contrasted like day and night with the brown, beaten door that was it's base.

"Gimme your keys." She commanded silently as to not wake up any neighbors that happened to sleep with one eye open, with their gun under their pillow.

The drunken man grunted as he took his free hand and looked in his right pocket, which was across his body, and being that he was drunk, it took a while for his to find his keys.

After much scrambling, he took out a small bronze key with the number _128_ engraved onto it with rough fingers.

She took the keys and jammed it into the keyhole, promptly turning it as she pushed it open with her left hand.

Gaige had never been into another person's apartment, nonetheless a boys', so she opened the door carefully, not quite sure what to expect.

 _What if it's messy?_

 _What if it smells?_

 _What if it's too small?_

 _What if he left something embarrassing lying out?_

As all these "What if"'s ran through her head, she held her breath in anticipation as she opened the door, and to her surprise, she wasn't hit with a bomb of all odors when she did. She peered inside the room, stepping in onto the hard wood floor and after a little search of the walls, she turned on the light switch located next to the key-holder by the door.

As the dim lights flickered on, she could finally see the room. It wasn't too big, nor too small. In the famous words of Goldilocks, "It was just right." There was a small Tv on the left side of the room, with a coffee table sitting 2 feet way from it and a brown, surprisingly new-looking couch siting comfortably near the coffee table, facing the tv. His bed was found in the center, the backboard pressed up against the wall with two black night stands located besides it. His bed was a darker shade of blue with white stripes running along it, and with pearly white pillows to match.

The kitchen was located off to the far right corner, separating itself from the rest of the room with long, brown table with a black tablecloth resting comfortably on top, acting as a "wall" of sorts. The worn refrigerator was on the sitting snug in the middle of a row of counters with appliances on each one.

"Nice apartment, Ax; mine looks like a tornado had just gone through it."

"Ha!" He giggled uncontrollably, a small hiccup abruptly ending it as his head slightly jolted.

She went to stand in front of the drunk man, his eyes were having trouble staying focused on her as they always began to doze off, "Ok." She put her hands behind her back and crossed her legs, putting one behind the other.

"I'm going to leave, so don't throw up in your sleep alright? That'd be really bad."

Axton nodded slowly as he began to slowly lean back.

Evertthing seemed to be going fine, until his stomach began to make noises. His eyes were suddenly wide awake, jolting open, frighting the girl. He stood up and tried to run into the next room to the left of the tv, where Gaige assumed the bathroom would be. But, as his luck is horrible- proven by his gambling- he didn't make it, and he threw up on his wooden floor, getting some on his clothes in the process.

All the while this was happening, Gaige looked away, using her ears to block to noise. She had this thing where she'd become sick after seeing someone else get sick, and she didn't feel like throwing up in Axton's room.

After Gaige began to feel heavy thumps coming from behind her, she looked around to see a even more exhausted looking Axton walk by her and fall cross-style on the bed, facing upwards. After a few seconds of landing, he promptly fell into a deep slumber, still wearing the vomit-covered outfit.

"Oh, geez." Gaige facepalmed her forehead, which was already heating up, as she realized she would have to undress the man,

She walked up to the unconscious body, gazing over it.

 _Am I really going to do this?_

 _Yes, and you're going to love it._

 _No I'm not!_

 _Well, whatever. Either way, his clothes are coming off._

Gaiged signed as she leaned over his body, hoping to God that she didn't fall down right now, and began to unzip his brown jacket. Luckily, he didn't have his ammo bags on his body, so this would be a little easier.

After it was open, she gazed at the body under her. It was almost as if she was intimately undressing her lover.

 _No!_ She internally yelled as she vigorously shook her head, _Can't be thinking like this!_

Ignoring how much her head was spinning and how incredibly shaky her knees were getting, she took ahold of Axton's arm, then she immediately stopped, something else getting her attention as she ran her hands over his covered muscles.

Certaintly, all those work out sessions weren't for nothing: his arms were ripped!

 _Drip drip_

Gaige parted her moist lips, running one of her fingers over it. They were wet, was she seriously drooling?

She looked down, noticing two drops of a darker shade of grey on his shirt. Yup, she was drooling.

 _Aughh, when did I get so perverted. Just undress him, and get out._

She nodded in agreement as she quickly slipped both arms out of the sleeves, and moved onto the much harder part, his pants.

She took in deep breaths, trying to slow down her heart and make her head feel like it wasn't in a dryer. After no luck, she decided to try her best at ignoring it.

She lowered herself over his pants, eyeing its small button holding it all together with anxious eyes. She wiped some sweat off her forehead as she took a delicate finger and took a hold of his button, undoing it ever so slowly, stopping everytime he seemed to move.

 _Pop_

The little button had come off. This caused her to retreat as she put her hands on her shaky knees. Her face was so red it could very well be possible all her blood was all diverted to that area. She was sweating so much she could fill buckets, and not only that, but her stomach was feeling as though a whole pack of skags were running around in there, bumping on the walls as they did so. She reminded herself to check with Doctor Mercy tomorrow, she was almost 99% she was sick with some unknown disease or something.

She took deep breaths, slowing down her irregular, rapid one, and turned around once more to take his pants off.

She stood over him once more and placed her shaky fingers over his zipper, trying her hardest to forget what was under it, and pulled down quickly. After, she pulled from the pockets, as to not be forced to touch his skin, because she was sure she wouldn't be able to handle it.

Once the pants were off, she stood up straight again, looked up exhausted as she let out a long breath.

 _God, that was the hardest thing I had to do, and I've almost died too many times to count..._

She looked over her shoulder at Axton's unconscious body, noticing a small outline of something under his black boxers. She jolted her head away, sighing as she cursed Axton for making her feel like this.

She sighed, sitting down on the brown wood as she realized that his clothes were still on the bed.

She groaned as she forced her exhausted body up, walking over to his bed again, ignoring the distracting body of her comrade as she swiped the clothes, being careful as to not get puke on her hands. She looked around the small apartment, hoping that she would find some washing room so she wouldn't have to go outside. Usually, she wouldn't mind, but since it was a night of celebration, she left deathtrap and her weapons back at her apartment, a whole block away from Axtons', she didn't feel like getting mugged today.

After a quick search, she saw a door that was connected to the kitchen. She walked gently on the floor, watching her steps as she didn't want to wake the man.

As she walked, she had time to think. Time to think about Pandora, guns, robots, and finally, Axton. Just the very thought of his name made her heart slightly race and breath hitch.

Axton caused... peculiar feelings in Gaige. The earliest time she could recall feeling something towards Axton was when she had found him at the crash.

She was on her way to Pandora, the planet that housed millions of vaults, if the rumors were true. So she stowed away on a rocketship that was going to Pandora, an act that she had done many times before to go to a fro planets. But nothing could've prepared her for the landing. It was a like a rough ride, she was launched around, slamming on the cargo of the very little amount of passengers, debri flying everywhere. Apparently, as she later found out, a group of bandits had shot down the rocket, thinking they could steal the cargo and sell it on the market.

Anyways, Gaige wandered alone through the icelands of the planet, when she hear an explosion: it was a train. She quickly ran towards the train's cargo hold, where she hoped to find some weapons and such, but instead, she found a man: Axton.

She smiled fondly at the memory. She still couldn't believe she tried to kill him, and even though she did, he still trusted her.

Who woulda thunk it: the first person she meets on a planet notoriously known for its bloodshed is the nicest, kindest, most charming man she's come to known and love.

That's when her mind wandered to love.

Where she grew up, learning about love was pointless to her. You needed to be on the run most of the time so why would she? But, when everyone would sleep, she would love to read. Mostly it was math books or science books, but on the offchance that she was bored, which was most of the time, she would read romantic novels, and in each one, the main protagonist, the one that falls in love, always had the same symptoms. Thinking of them all night, not getting sleep, whenever they thought about them, their heart would begin to race and their face would flush red, or accelerated breathing. All of them were the same, and once she learned this, she would always apply it to herself. A little test, if you will, to see if she was in love.

At first, she thought she was in love with Hammerlock, a man with the greatest mustache she'd ever seen, but now, she doesn't even know if that was true.

She sighed as she turned the knob to the door, feeling relieved as it was, indeed, a washing room.

She walked over to the metallic box, opening the lid as she was done checking it out. She loved machinery after all and her hand proved that.

She dumped the dirty clothes in with a soft, dull thunk, swiftly grabbing what she thought was soap and poured it in until she felt it was just right.

After the setup was done, she tinkered with the settings: setting it on low and pressed the _start_ button, watching with a tired smile as the little box came to life as it bounced around.

She walked out, gently closing the door behind her, and walked softly towards the couch, past the snoring man which got her thinking: did she love Axton?

It was a thought that always lingered in the farthest part of her mind, and it has been growing overtime, growing bigger and stronger everytime he laughed, stared at her, and risked his life for her. Just last night, when they fought the destroyer, he sacrificed both of his sentries, something he's always said he loves more than anything else, just for her. He had no idea how happy that made her, and she didnt want him to know.

She decided to run the small test on herself, as she was just now realizing how fast her heart was beating.

Accelerated breathing? Check.

Heated cheeks? Check.

Thinking about them all night? Nope.

Rapid heartbeats? ...Check.

3/4... She's never gone that high before, even with Hammerlock, her supposed love, she only got 2.

She sighed as she vaulted over the back of couch, falling comfortable onto the lush cushions. She spread her body out, effectively stretching with a small groan as she did so. She was exhausted. She moved a pillow behind her as she stared at the tan ceiling, that sheltered the residence, her mind somehow drowning itself with thoughts about Axton. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the dam from breaking.

It seemed like her mind was just releasing all the pent up thoughts about how he looked, how he talked, how his smile made her heart skip a beat. All of the thoughts she's maybe thought up during battle but was too blinded by fear of rejection to even think of finishing the thought process.

It was too much for her to handle as a rolling heat spread thoughtful her body, landing on her face. She rolled over to her side, trying to find a comfortable position, but it just wouldn't work. So she went with what worked best:

Just roll with it.

* * *

It was 6:40 in the morning, everyone was beginning to get ready for the day as the young hero laid on the couch, her eyes bloodshot as she stared up at the smooth, tan ceiling with a hand running through her now messy hair.

 **Thinking about them all night? Check.**

* * *

 **Author Notes** : Wasn't that just lovely? Now, this may be my biased mind talking, but this was pretty damn epic. I might make a follow up if you guys really want it. Either way, hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing!

 **Edits** : Pretty much everything.


	2. The Continuation of Axton x Gaige

The shirtless man groaned regretfully as he put a sweaty hand up to his head, alerting the sleep deprived girl.

"Who the hell made me drink so much.." He questioned to no one in particular; and was surprised when "no one" responded.

"You did. Idiot."

Axton jolted up from his comfortable bed, looking over to his couch, where the voice originated from. "Who's there!?" He quickly reached for his small revolver stashed in his back pocket, getting even more surprised when he felt his butt rather than his camo pants.

"Where the f*ck are my pants?" He put his hands over his exposed stomach, "Where the f*ck is my shirt?!"

"Holy crap; could you be any louder?" The frazzled looking girl peered over the back of the couch, exposing Gaige's small body wearing one of Axton's army shirts. It was a little too big, so it hung low on her shoulders, giving Axton many... suggestive ideas about what he did last night.

"Oh, sh*t." He put his hands through his blond hair. "Did we...?" He rapidly pointed his finger from him to her.

Her face became a tame hue of red. "Hell. No." She gave him an irritated stare. Not getting any sleep really affects a girl.

She sighed deeply, "Your dumbass got so drunk you passed out, so I hadda drag you over to your room."

Axton slowly nodded. "So that explains... That. But what about my shirt and, y'know, pants."

"You threw up. Everywhere. So I had to clean it up." She thinned her lips.

"What about you wearing my sh-"

"I didn't want to sleep in my shirt so I borrowed your shirt." She rapidly explained, slightly huffing as she finished. "We done with the 20 questions. I really want to sleep."

Axton got up, taking long strides over to his closer as he pulled out a plain grey shirt, overlapping it with another brown jacket. "Sleep?" He chuckled, "Gaige." He gave her a cheeky smile.

"We have that big mission today. Y'know, the one that you've been begging to do, but have always been told that we were too weak?" He quickly put on his spare pair of pants, making a note to check his dryer for his previous clothes.

"You mean..." She let out an frustrated groan, smashing her face with the pillow beside her.

"Yup: the Oasis treasure hunt." He quickly zipped over to his kitchen, slamming the tile on the ground to reveal a small compartment full of ammo and weapons extending from the floor. "You better suit up, cause I heard this one might be the hardest one yet." He grabbed his trusty Harold, strapping it tightly on his leg before he picked up 3 more weapons, varying in elements and types.

"F*ck my life!" She muffled her screaming with Axton's red pillow.

* * *

"Y'know, that mission was kind of bull at first with that one insane dude, but the boss fight was really worth it!" Gaige and the rest of the vault hunters all strolled into Sanctuary like they've done many times before, only this time they were up to their necks with weapons and relics.

Everyone either had a wide grin spread out on their face, or a small, contained smile. Gaige had the first one.

"You said it, chica!" The brash voice of the gunzerker caused most passerbys to look at the smile infested group with a glare. They may have saved the world, but most still didn't like them. "Only in my wildest dreams would I have a assault rifle that shoots **fucking exploding spears!** "

The gun obsessed man shot off some rounds into the air, laughing wildly as it blew some cans of paint from the top of some rooftops. He wiped a tear from his eye, letting out a sniffle, "I've never felt so manly..."

The group laughed at the small man's actions.

As the day grew late, the sky was splashed with orange, only letting the small slivers of yellow come through as purple took its spot. The air was clean and crisp, signifying that it was a relatively peaceful day on Pandora. Gaige, once again, sat at the table with deathtrap etched into the mahogany wood. She swirled her drink around, trailing her finger along the lines of the rough sketch, waiting for him to show up.

"How's my favorite trooper!" She overheard Moxxy shout, not paying any mind as she had heard the same phrase many times.

"Relaxed, actually. Something that's not really common on Pandora." The man replied back before she heard the screech of the chair as he sat down.

The bartender let out a nearly forced laughter, she was losing her touch. "Oh, Axton, you're hilarious." She let out another painfully forced laughter before Gaige turned her head rapidly at the sound of his name.

 _Axton..._

 _Axe-ton..._

 _Ax-ton.._

She played around with his name; its syllables was like music to her ears.

"Really? Never really thought of myself as the hilarious type." The soldier let out a small _hm_ before ordering rakkale with tons of ice, his favorite drink.

He spun around on the red revolving chair, scoping out the empty bar before spotting his young teammate, giving her a smile and wave, he quickly told Moxxy that he was going to sit by her, and took long strides to her table.

Her heart pounded with every step he took as her hands began to unconsciously mess around with her hair. "S-Sup, Axe-ton."

She mentally slapped herself. "Axe-ton?" The soldier sat across from her, the worn seats deflating under his weight. He took the seat closest to the wall: it was his favorite seat for some reason.

"Sup, Ga-ige," his famous boyish smirk grew on his face as he purposefully messed up her name.

Gaige could feel her heart soar as she began twisting the ends of her hair with one finger. Her face was beet red as she stared at the deathtrap sketch on the table, briefly switching between looking at her drink and her sketch, but never looking up. She was afraid she would lose control if she gazed into his brown, chocolate eyes.

Axton chuckled at the girls' introverted behavior, chocking it up to just being embarrassed that she had a slip of her tongue rather than what it really was.

He threw his boots onto the table, leaning into the wall as he lazily slung his arm along the back of the seat. "So, why did you call me in here? Did ya need something?" He used his knuckles to gently scratch his cheek.

"Um... Not really." She drummed her fingers along the side of her glass, emitting rhythmic clanks as her black fingernails tapped the old glass. "I sorta need some advice..."

"Advice?" Axton lowered his feet as Moxxy came up to him with his drink, giving him a wink as she turned around, shaking her hips purposefully as to get the attention of the man. Which it did, before he decided that it wasn't worth it. "On what?"

Gaige could feel her cheeks get even hotter as she gazed to her side, biting her lips as she gripped her drink even harder. She took a deep breath, still not daring to look up as she began. "Well... I have this-erm- friend, that- um- sorta has these..." Gaige took a large gulp, " _Feelings_ for one of her other friends. And- um- she doesn't know what to do about it..."

Axton smirked, "Ahh yes: love. Probably the worst and best thing you'll ever experience in your life." He took a sip of his drink, grabbing an ice cube with his teeth as he began to suck on it.

"Well, it's not really easy, I would know," his voice was semi-muffled due to the ice in his mouth, "but- my advice would be to confess."

"But what if she doesn't think she can?"

"Well," Axton looked up, running an idle hand through his blond hair, "It's never easy to confess. But hey, we've survived hell, and we're still going through it! So saying your feelings shouldn't be so hard on a planet like this."

Before Gaige could give her rebuttal, Axton continued. "Besides, life is short- even shorter on this planet. You can't be stuck thinking on 'What if..' or 'I can't do it...' You should just... Do it. Tell her that she'll feel better after she does- and trust me, she will." He took another swig of his drink.

Gaige was left in silence, thinking about the man's words.

There was a rapid sequence of footsteps approaching their table, and upon looking up, they realized that it was a small teenage girl. She wore a shirt that said, in proud colors, _Axton Fan-club. "_ Oh. My. God!" The girl held her notebook up to her mouth, covering her large grin.

"You're Axton, right!?"

Axton slowly nodded, a confused stare eyeing the hyper girl, who, somehow, reminded him a lot of a certain bombs expert.

She let out an excited squeak, spinning on her heels as she did, her skirt making a small circle around her body. "I'm Amber, and I'm seriously, your biggest fan!"

"Oh-"

"Like, when you saved the world from Jack, I swore myself that I would meet you one day." She put up a hand to her chest, showing her loyalty.

The girl giggled uncontrollably, visibly annoying Gaige and many other woman in the bar. "Can I shake your hand?"

The soldier was still drinking his drink as he gave a side glance toward the girl before eyeing her hand. "No." He could see the sweatiness of it from where he was.

The girl was visibly distraught, stuttering as she searched around her small purse, promptly pulling out a black pen. "Could you sign my notebook then?"

The soldier put down his drink and slowly took the pink notebook, which was in a fairly good condition, out of her anxious, shaking hand. "Sure." He quickly took her pen, writing his name on the first blank page he found. He signed it with a version of his name that had many curves along with many straight lines.

"Here ya go," he handed the notebook and pen back with a smile.

The girl let out a small "eep" as she carefully held the signed book in her delicate hands, tracing the letters with her rough fingers. "Thank you..." She gave him a big smile, "I... I love you, Axton."

She quickly walked out, a burning red stuck on her face as well as a goofy grin.

The table was silent, well, unless you count all of Gaige's internal cursing. "See." Axton picked up his cold cup as he pointed lazily towards the door that the girl left from.

"She knows that she doesn't have a chance with me, but she still does it because she would want me to know it. That's what your friend should do." He took another long sip before looking at how the girl was staring intensely at her drink. "Hopes that helps."

Gaige took a while to respond, she had to think of her response. She could see what he was saying, and she understood it too. But... It just seemed too hard- for her friend of course.

She looked up with a grateful smile and took a big gulp of her weakened toxic. "Yeah."

* * *

"ARGHHH!"

The chained up bandit screeched as Gaige pumped his leg full of her fire billets, watching as his skin melted and his health decreased, before eventually he died, another bandit taking his place. She let out a small scoff, switching out her weapons as the bandit screamed at her to not shoot.

"Yo, Gaige." The soldier came in unannounced, slightly surprising the girl.

"Oh. Axton. What are you doing here?" She didn't bother to send another glance at him as she shot the bandit square in the end, shocking his now unhabited body.

The soldier took his hands out of his pockets, slamming the button to release a robot as he took out his new corrosive sniper. It had a custom chamber, signifying that it revolved. "Waiting for Sal to come: we have a small little contest meeting-thing here every Tuesday." He watched the robot get dragged in, shouting about how Hyperion is going to rule the world.

"Wait, you guys actually have contests?" She sent a small periodic stare at the man before closing one eye as she aimed down her sights, making sure the bandits' head was in the crosshairs.

"Yup." The man rubbed the back of his neck, "So far, it's 20-17 him. The dude loves guns."

He quickly sniped the robots' right arm, sending it flying off into the distance as the robot let out a monotonous "Ow."

"Really?" She inquired, interested that the egotistical man was losing; even if it was just by 3. "Thought you were the _best_." She mocked, quickly swapping her assault rifle for a shotgun.

"Well, like I said, the dude loves guns." He reloaded his weapon with a practiced manner, quickly changing it in a couple of seconds.

The girl gave a small affirmative grunt, letting her gaze wander over to the man to observe how his muscles clenched as he held the sniper grip tight. Briefly wondering how it would feel if he grabbed her like that

"Anyways, how did it go for your... Friend?" He smiled knowingly as he shot the robot again, this time in its head, using his pure strength to reduce a massive amount of recoil.

The girl was catched off guard, briefly freezing before resuming her target practice. "Umm... It went well: she took the advice and asked the guy out..."

"Oh, really?" Axton moved a stall closer, making himself only 2 stalls away from her.

"Yup. He said he was going to think about it, but I have a feeling that he mirrors her feelings..."

"That's good..." He moved again.

"Yeah..."

"So, hey. What's the this guy's name?" He moved again, only being one stall away now.

"Oh- umm." She stopped firing and placed her gun on the table, turning to face Axton, not even noticing that he got closer as she was trying to think of a convincing lie. "You would probably not know him..." Her face started to burn as she but her hands behind her back and played with her fingers, her knees slightly shaking.

Axton went to her booth and put up a hand to his chin, "Really? I wouldn't know?"

"N-Nope." Her darted her eyes around the room.

"Oh. Well, surely, you wouldn't mind if I guess. Right?" He softly grabbed her delicate chin, bringing her attention to what was in front of her.

She could barely breath, it was so ragged. Her heart was beating louder than the sound of an atomic bomb going off, her hands felt sweaty, and her face was blazing red. Her stomach was spinning and so was her head. She would probably never forget this... Sensation. It felt horrible, but at the same time, it felt amazing. She would probably never be able to describe it in words.

"N-No." Her voice was just above a whisper, her eyes were wide open as she gazed into his brown eyes. Her body was stiff.

"Brick?" He inched in closer.

"N-No."

"Mordecai?" He inched in closer, close enough to smell her vanilla scented body lotion.

"N-Nope." Her mind was going haywire.

"Scooter?" He was an inch away from her lips.

"N-N-No."

He grinned slyly, taking a small moment before continuing.

"Me."

He crashed his lips into hers, gently using his tongue to part her lips as he moved his head sideways as to get more access. Her shy, inexperienced tongue was dominated by his, being played around with in the confides of her mouth as they kissed passionately until their breath was gone.

They retracted from each other, both of their lips were moist as they rested their foreheads together, breathing heatedly as Axton had a cheeky grin on his face, and she had a dazed look on hers.

"And to answer your question: Yes. I would actually love to go out with you. How does Saturday by 8 sound?"

Gaige groggily nodded, the same dazed look stuck on her face as Axton chuckled, giving her a quick peck before walking off, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Gaige, finally shaking out of it looked up, grinning with all the happiness a heart could hold as she called out to him. "There never was a meeting, was there."

Axton stopped in his tracks and turned around, exposing his boyish smirk, the one that would make anyone fall in love with him at first sight.

"Nope."

 **~End~**


End file.
